Dartmouth Outlasts Alabama, 4-3

Friday, January 24

Tuscaloosa, Ala.

6:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Alabama

Dan Martin men's tennis NCAA versus Michigan

Junior Dan Martin

Photo by: Doug Austin

1/24/2020 10:01:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Charlotte Brackett

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Dartmouth men's tennis spoiled Alabama's undefeated record with a 4-3 victory on Friday evening.

"Today's goal was to play together, to support each other and compete from the first to the last point on every court," head coach Xander Centenari said. "It takes every ounce of that sort of effort to get through these types of 4-3 matches. Hats off to Alabama for pushing us to the very end. I'm really grateful to have a match like this early on in our season, win or lose. This is the type of match that we can draw so much from, build on and continue to get better as the season goes on. All credit goes to these guys for owning and committing to game plans in key moments.

"We will enjoy this match tonight, but our focus quickly goes to preparing for a tough LSU team on Sunday," Centenari continued. "We will take some time tomorrow to break down this match, take care of our bodies and create game plans to compete and play together in two day's time."

Wins at the No. 1 and 2 doubles positions gave the Big Green a 1-0 lead. At the top spot, Charlie Broom and David Horneffer had a 6-3 victory over their opponents, while Peter Conklin and Casey Ross had a 6-4 win of their own over a nationally ranked duo.

Dartmouth (2-0) soon had a 3-0 advantage following wins by Dan Martin and Broom at the No. 2 and 1 singles positions. The Green and the Crimson Tide suddenly had a match on their hand when Alabama (4-1) won at the No. 3 and 6 slots, leaving it all up to the two three-set matches still going.

Facing Alexey Nesterov on court four, Conklin dropped the first set, 6-3, before rebounding to win the remaining two sets, 6-3, 6-4 and take the entire match. A few seconds later, Alejandro Quiles narrowly fell in his three-setter at the No. 5 position.

On Sunday, Dartmouth will face LSU at 10 a.m.

1) No. 28 Broom/Horneffer (Dartmouth) def. Kaukovalta/Ortiz (Alabama), 6-3
2) Conklin/Ross (Dartmouth) def. No. 40 Nesterov/Roberto (Alabama), 6-4
3) Sepulveda/Zhou (Alabama) vs. Martin/Widdecombe (Dartmouth), 5-4, DNF

1) No. 52 Broom (Dartmouth) def. Ortiz (Alabama), 6-4, 6-4
2) Martin (Dartmouth) def. No. 96 Roberto (Alabama), 6-2, 6-3
3) Zhou (Alabama) def. Horneffer (Dartmouth), 7-5, 6-1
4) Conklin (Dartmouth) def. Nesterov (Alabama), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
5) Kaukovalta (Alabama) def. Quiles (Dartmouth), 4-6, 7-5, 6-4
6) Gschwendtner (Alabama) def. Speicher (Dartmouth), 6-4, 6-3
Order of finish: 2,1,3,6,4,5